scents

Lemon tree is out again

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Yesterday, I put the lemon tree out again; out of the house, into the wild, with lots of sunshine and fresh air, and bees. It is a small tree, still, but gave us 5 lemons so far, which I find spectacular for Zurich. Right now, it is blooming again, and carrying it out of the basement was like carrying an opened bottle of neroli oil, with a whiff of bathroom, sort of. When visiting the perfumery perfumeshoppe in Scottsdale, meeting lovely Rebecca, and discussing jasmine, among other things, I said something like ” you know: Jasmine blooms in the night and attracts flies. And you know: Flies don’t go for clean nice flower scents. They are more fascinated by body fecal odors….”. This, of course,was on the side, and it is -in front of clients in search of a beautiful scent, a no-go.

Maybe better say: jasmine fascinates by how it hides its animalic vulgarity beneath an innocent white veil of sweet floral delicacy. Something like that.

The same is true for lemon and other citrus flowers. I love them all. And, also fascinating: Citrus trees are really the source of more than just one essential oil. Imagine: One tree gives you: petit grain (extract from the leaves), essential oil from the zest of its fruits (like lime or bergamot oil), the flower absolute which concentrates the animalic vulgarity, and the neroli oil which is steam distilled blossom oil, super expensive and heaven on earth.

Neroli is part of every classical cologne, like we use it since 200 years. Neroli is fresh, floral, and pure. It is a heart note but not really very long lasting. With its clean touch it is also perfect in men’s fragrances. Of course, not in your average industry fragrance boredom outlet these days, neroli is just to expensive for that. I used neroli oil in my all natural/botanical cologne, and in Zeta-a linden blossom theme, together with lots of bergamot, lemon and orange oil, and orange absolute building like a cologne kick-off for the rose-linden combo. Sounds a bit like reading the McDonalds menu. Sorry. Describing perfumes is really tricky, especially when you composed them. Better to just say: Fresh and heaven on earth.

so… the lemon tree is out of the house again, and attracts Zurich flies, and Andy Tauer.

Today’s illustration, reduced in size for the blog: Lemon tree blossom, in Zurich, 2014, ©tauer